Psychology of Emotions: Importance, Plutchik's Wheel, and Gender Differences

Running Head: Psychology
Psychology
Psychology of Emotions

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Psychology
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Importance of Emotions..........................................................................................................2
Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions..................................................................................................4
Elements of the Wheel............................................................................................................5
Usage of the Wheel.................................................................................................................6
Opposite Gender’s Reaction to the situation...........................................................................8
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................10

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Psychology
Introduction
As the human beings live their daily life, they experience a different variety of emotions.
Emotions are the subjective state of being that is mostly described as feelings. There are times
when these words emotions and moods are used at different places and interchangeably too but
the psychologists use such words only for referring two different things (So, Achar, Agrawal, &
Duhachek, 2015). Characteristically, this word emotion refers to the subjective and affective
state which is comparably deep and occurs with response to something that human beings
experience. Mostly emotions are taken to be a conscious experience and it is intentional. On the
other hand, mood always refers to the long and less intense state which does not happens as the
outcome of something which is experienced by humans. The states of the mood might not be
recognized being conscious and they also do not carry the intentions that are linked with
emotions. One can feel a lot of emotions such as a lot of joy or depth of despair. One might
easily feel angry when he or she is betrayed or feel the fear when they are threatened etc. This
report will focus on a few of such emotions which are related to the psychology (Mesquita &
Janxin, 2014).
Importance of Emotions
Emotions are the feelings which can take an important place in human beings life. They play a
very significant role as to how a person think and behave. They can also compel us for taking
various actions whenever needed and emotions also manipulates the decision of the human
beings about one’s life irrespective of them being small or big (Mortari, 2015). There are three
significant components which are related to the emotions. These are required to be understood in
order to understand the importance of the emotions. Emotions of human beings can be of
subjective component which refers to the way humans experience emotions, psychological
component which refers to the reaction of the human bodies towards the emotions and expressive
component which refers to the behavior human response in towards the emotions (Pedragosa,
Biscaia, & Correia, 2015). There are very dissimilar elements which can be played in the
function and purpose of the emotional responses. The emotions of the human beings can be short

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Psychology
lived like a person being annoyed with the colleague but it was just a flash of anger or it can be
long lasting like sadness towards life or a lost relation (Stuhr, 2013).
There are several factors as to how emotions are important to human beings. They are as follows:
 Motivation: When a person has had an exam which was nerve wrecking, he might have
had felt lots of anxiety as to if he will be able to perform nicely in that exam or not. As
these emotions are so dominating on the person’s mind, he or she would study even more
because of these emotions. Since, all these emotions were there in a person’s mind, he
was motivated to do better and for that he studies more (Olsson, 2003). This went to a
positive side that he wanted to score good in the exam. Sometimes, human beings can
take particular actions for experiencing the positive emotions and reducing the possibility
of feeling bad emotions. Example: One might seek for social activities or some new
hobbies which can give a sense of joy, satisfaction and enthusiasm. Whereas one would
possibly ignore the scenarios which may lead to boredom, grief loneliness and anxiety
(Ketonen, 2017).
 Survive Thrive and Danger Avoidance: Charles Darwin who was the naturalist has this
belief that emotions are the alteration which allows animals and the humans for surviving
and reproduction. When humans are angry, they most likely for confrontation which is
the source of the irritation. When a person experience fear, he will most likely run from
the threat. Emotions serve as the adaptive role in the lives of the humans by motivating
people in acting quickly and take the actions which will increase the opportunity of the
survival and success (Kim, 2012).
 Take up Decisions: The emotions of the human beings play a major role in the
influencing of the decisions they make from what exactly they decide to do. It can be
anything from having their breakfast to some major life decisions. Some researchers also
found out that human beings with particular types of brain damage which affects their
capability in experiencing emotions also have a reduced ability in making good decisions.
Even in the situations when a person believes the decisions are guided solely by logic and
rational has this significant role (Bayer & Hekimoglu , 2017).